Trip to the zoo!

We headed out Saturday morning for the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium. We thought it would be a fun outing for Hadley's birthday since she's such an animal lover. Just like the rest of Pittsburgh, the zoo was incredibly hilly but the kids were troopers despite the 95 degree heat. We only brought the single stroller for Tate so they had to walk, but thankfully it's the perfect size zoo for little kids, not too big and overwhelming. We got there right when it opened so it wasn't too crowded and we were able to see it all comfortably. Most of the animals were front and center, easy to spot, so the kids enjoyed it. The aquarium part is fun with a ton of cool fish and a sting ray touch tank. They had a petting zoo, a train, a carosel and a nice playground for the kids. They even had a treehouse climbing area with large tunnel slides. They spit kids out so fast they had staff workers manning the bottom of them to help kids off and clear the way for the next ones. They had two areas, the lower level for smaller kids and the upper level with a sign that said "ages 8 and up". It was pretty tall. Cautious Wyatt wanted no part of that one but of course our fearless girl headed straight the top and got so upset when Dayven told her she couldn't do it. I could hear her up there yelling "I AM! A! BIG! GIRL! It's my BIRTHDAY!!" She was not happy to walk back down the stairs but luckily there was another fun playground right around the corner to distract her.

Trying desperately to get a photo, but no one was cooperating...

The elephant getting a bath with the hose.

We stopped at a favorite new grocery store for lunch on the way home. It has a fabulous cafe with outdoor seating and live music on the weekends. We were walking out the car with the kids trailing behind and I didn't notice the kids had started talking to the musician. I heard him say into the microphone "Hi Wyatt, nice to meet you. You're a nice boy..... What song would you like to hear?.........   Winnie the Pooh? I can do that!" and then he broke into a tune about Winnie while the kids giggled and danced their hearts out. The other lunch patrons got a kick out of it too. It was very sweet and silly. After that we headed home to finish our celebration with cake and presents.